Claudia Seabrook

Claudia Seabrook was the Conservative Party MP for Tyne Bridge West from 3 May 1979, succeeding Alan Paine.

Biography
Claudia Seabrook was the daughter of Conservative Party politician Claude Seabrook, who served as Home Secretary under Prime Minister Edward Heath. While her father was disgraced by a corruption scandal in 1974, Claudia became a widely respected young leader in the party, and, in 1979, she decided to run for Parliament in the Tyne Bridge West constituency, which had been held by the Labour Party since 1924. She sought to win fair and square, campaigning only on policies, but Conservative agent Colin Butler launched a harsh smear campaign against her Labour rival Nicky Hutchinson, accusing him of being gay, a Trotskyist, an IRA supporter, and a former terrorist. Seabrook also spoke with Mrs. Doris Rushland, who had failed to convince Hutchinson to disperse the Romani living in her backyard, and she said that she agreed with Rushland, as she believed that they should not be allowed to make a nuissance, and that they did have sites to live at. She steadily rose in the polls; she started at 38% to Hutchinson's 50%, but rose in the polls due to her successful public image. She won the once-safe Labour seat by a close margin.